Super Space Clothoids

Special Issue: SIGGRAPH 2013 ConferenceInternational audienceThin elastic filaments in real world such as vine tendrils, hair ringlets or curled ribbons often depict a very smooth, curved shape that low-order rod models -- e.g., segment-based rods -- fail to reproduce accurately and compactly. In this paper, we push forward the investigation of high-order models for thin, inextensible elastic rods by building the dynamics of a G2-continuous piecewise 3D clothoid: a smooth space curve with piecewise affine curvature. With the aim of precisely integrating the rod kinematic problem, for which no closed-form solution exists, we introduce a dedicated integration scheme based on power series expansions. It turns out that our algorithm reaches machine precision orders of magnitude faster compared to classical numerical integrators. This property, nicely preserved under simple algebraic and differential operations, allows us to compute all spatial terms of the rod kinematics and dynamics in both an efficient and accurate way. Combined with a semi-implicit time-stepping scheme, our method leads to the efficient and robust simulation of arbitrary curly filaments that exhibit rich, visually pleasing configurations and motion. Our approach was successfully applied to generate various scenarios such as the unwinding of a curled ribbon as well as the aesthetic animation of spiral-like hair or the fascinating growth of twining plants

Digital Hair Creation for Archaeological Facial Approximation: George Dixon, the Last Captain of the Hl Hunley

This study explores the application of digital hair creation techniques in archaeological facial approximation, focusing on the case of George Dixon, the last captain of the HL Hunley submarine. While digital hair creation techniques have been previously employed in facial approximation, this research seeks to investigate further their potential and advantages over traditional methods, particularly regarding flexibility and the ability to create multiple variations. Facial approximation is a critical method for reconstructing the physical appearance of historical individuals. However, accurately recreating their hairstyle presents a significant challenge due to limited information and reliance on artistic interpretation. This research aims to harness digital hair creation techniques to address these limitations by integrating archaeological evidence, historical records, and scientific principles. The methodology involves five steps: data collection, hair modeling, hair simulation, styling and texturing, and integration and evaluation. The data collection phase involves gathering archaeological evidence, historical accounts, and visual references of hairstyles from the relevant time period. Hair modeling involves creating a three-dimensional model of Dixon\u27s head using computed tomography (CT) scans or available data. Hair simulation employs advanced computer graphics techniques to simulate the physical properties of hair. Styling and texturing involve sculpting and manipulating the digital hair strands into the desired hairstyle and adding color and other attributes for a lifelike appearance. Finally, the reconstructed hairstyle is integrated with Dixon\u27s facial approximation model and evaluated for accuracy and realism. One of the key advantages of this digital approach is the ability to easily create alternate versions and conduct look development in consultation with archaeologists. This allows for a more comprehensive exploration of possible hairstyles and facial hair variations for Dixon, enhancing the accuracy and authenticity of the facial approximation. This research contributes to the growing body of work on the application of digital techniques in archaeological facial approximation. The findings from this study will offer valuable insights into the appearance of George Dixon and provide a useful reference for future research in the field. Keywords: digital hair creation, archaeological facial approximation, hairstyle reconstruction, George Dixon, HL Hunley, computed tomography, three-dimensional modeling, hair simulation, styling, texturing, accuracy, authenticity, forensic archaeology

Intuitive, Interactive Beard and Hair Synthesis with Generative Models

We present an interactive approach to synthesizing realistic variations in facial hair in images, ranging from subtle edits to existing hair to the addition of complex and challenging hair in images of clean-shaven subjects. To circumvent the tedious and computationally expensive tasks of modeling, rendering and compositing the 3D geometry of the target hairstyle using the traditional graphics pipeline, we employ a neural network pipeline that synthesizes realistic and detailed images of facial hair directly in the target image in under one second. The synthesis is controlled by simple and sparse guide strokes from the user defining the general structural and color properties of the target hairstyle. We qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate our chosen method compared to several alternative approaches. We show compelling interactive editing results with a prototype user interface that allows novice users to progressively refine the generated image to match their desired hairstyle, and demonstrate that our approach also allows for flexible and high-fidelity scalp hair synthesis.Comment: To be presented in the 2020 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR 2020, Oral Presentation). Supplementary video can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4qOtBATrv

A Dynamic Hair Rigging System for Maya

This thesis will cover the creation, use, and process of an automated rigging tool in Maya. The dynamic hair-rigging system’s purpose is to help control the function, style, and movement of hair, along with other uses. A solution for controlling and manipulating sections of hair is using an automated rigging system that allows for full artistic freedom over styling and animating hair. An interface was designed to aid rigging artists with producing quick and efficient rigs for hair. Along with the use for hair, the dynamic hair-rigging tool could also be used to drive and control chain, rope, and other secondary objects

HairBrush for Immersive Data-Driven Hair Modeling

International audienceWhile hair is an essential component of virtual humans, it is also one of the most challenging digital assets to create. Existing automatic techniques lack the generality and flexibility to create rich hair variations, while manual authoring interfaces often require considerable artistic skills and efforts, especially for intricate 3D hair structures that can be difficult to navigate. We propose an interactive hair modeling system that can help create complex hairstyles in minutes or hours that would otherwise take much longer with existing tools. Modelers, including novice users, can focus on the overall hairstyles and local hair deformations, as our system intelligently suggests the desired hair parts. Our method combines the flexibility of manual authoring and the convenience of data-driven automation. Since hair contains intricate 3D structures such as buns, knots, and strands, they are inherently challenging to create using traditional 2D interfaces. Our system provides a new 3D hair author-ing interface for immersive interaction in virtual reality (VR). Users can draw high-level guide strips, from which our system predicts the most plausible hairstyles via a deep neural network trained from a professionally curated dataset. Each hairstyle in our dataset is composed of multiple variations, serving as blend-shapes to fit the user drawings via global blending and local deformation. The fitted hair models are visualized as interactive suggestions that the user can select, modify, or ignore. We conducted a user study to confirm that our system can significantly reduce manual labor while improve the output quality for modeling a variety of head and facial hairstyles that are challenging to create via existing techniques

Art Directed Fire-Hair Simulation

Fire simulation and hair simulation can be used to create stylized characters and character animation in movies. In this research a system was created whereby fire simulation was guided by hair simulation, which this thesis refers to as Fire-Hair. This simulation system was built inside Houdini, a professional software package widely used in the visual effects industry. The goal of this research was to develop a workflow that utilized velocity field generated by the hair simulation to drive the fire simulation, and to let simulated fire represent the shape and animation of hair strands. This simulation approach is packaged as a digital asset for future use, with all requisite modifiable parameters exposed to artists. About 20 hair strands were simulated to drive the fire simulation. Hair strand shapes were defined by curves created by the artist; these shapes remain modifiable after creation. Velocity fields which follow hair motion are used as a control field to affect the fire simulation. The final result shows both the physical appearance of fire as well as the shape and motion of hair. The approach was applied to several animated characters to verify reliability and ensure it was visually convincing and robust. The simulated results were rendered using the Houdini built-in render tool, Mantra

Expressive rendering of animated hair

National audienceHair simulation is one of the crucial elements of a character realism in video games as well as animated movies. It is also one of the most challenging because of its complex nature. A simulation model needs to be able to handle hair fibers or wisp interaction while keeping the desired rendering style. During the past few years intensive work has been done in this field. Most of the authors have tried to render and animate hair as realistically as possible. Impressive results have been obtained and computation times have been reduced. Nevertheless this level of realism is not always desired by the animator. Most animated characters are represented with a hair model only composed of a few hair wisps or clumps in other words the individual hair fibers are not even accounted for. Only little work has been done to animate and render non-photorealistic hair for cel-characters1 . The goal of this work is to design an expressive rendering technique for a realistic animation of hair. This project is a part of an ANR research program for a joint industrial project with two production studios: Neomis Animation and BeeLight, two other INRIA project-teams: Bipop and Evasion and a CNRS lab (Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert de l'Université Pierre et Marie Curie). The aim of this project is to provide hair rendering and animating tools for movie making. According to the discussions we had with artists from Neomis studio, it appears that an animator will expect realism of hair motion combined with an expressive rendering technique that is dedicated to animated movies

The Racial Rhetoric of Cuteness as Decorative Decorum

This work looks at the trope of cuteness as a means of investigating the topological phenomena of race and public space, particularly in regards to African American rhetorical modes of visual and spatial practice. By introducing a sociological coinage known as the \u27teddy-bear effect,\u27 this work explores how racialized expressions of cuteness give off the impression of a demurring civility surrounding the social expectations associated with the cultural norms of gender and class. As a preferred characteristic of information design and strategically deployed for the tactic of racialized passings in the face of increasingly regulated forms of \u27post-racial\u27 gate-keeping and contemporary color politics, this research interrogates how racial cutification animates certain generational differences within African American communities while simultaneously shaping mainstream conceptualizations of what constitutes appropriate public decorum. Of specific concern is the cultural logic of \u27minoritization\u27 on people of color as far as the techno-spatial processes of race and racism for how it serves as a means by which global citizenship continues to be fashioned, especially in civic politics, black women\u27s hair care and identity, social networking, and multimodal writing and pedagogy. Finally, this work asserts the ascendance of cuteness as a paradoxical sign of excess and miniaturization related to notions of multicultural authority and power and tracks the influence of this popularly imagined iconography of African Americanicity across the public sphere

Wishes: Modeling Characters and Environments for a Visual Narrative

Wishes showcases character and environmental models designed for an original short animation. The story begins when a wishing coin comes to life and tries to interfere with the wish of its owner. The narrative, a quintessential romance, derives a timeless appeal from its locale, Paris. The design is inspired by digital artists like Cecille Carre, directors like Pete Docter, and painters like Eugene J. Paproski. Overall concepts and production of the models spanned five months

3D Hair sketching for real-time dynamic & key frame animations

Physically based simulation of human hair is a well studied and well known problem. But the "pure" physically based representation of hair (and other animation elements) is not the only concern of the animators, who want to "control" the creation and animation phases of the content. This paper describes a sketch-based tool, with which a user can both create hair models with different styling parameters and produce animations of these created hair models using physically and key frame-based techniques. The model creation and animation production tasks are all performed with direct manipulation techniques in real-time. © 2008 Springer-Verlag